Saudi Aramco will pursue the Non-Metallic Growth opportunities by unlocking its broad range of potential, aligned with its growth strategy covering the oil and gas sector as well as automotive, building & construction, packaging, and renewable sectors.

According to Saudi Aramco’s Vice President of Engineering Services, Abdullah Al-Baiz, in line with Saudi Vision 2030 to advance the kingdom’s economy ranking to be among the top 15, one of Saudi Aramco’s focus areas in its long term strategy is the use of nonmetallic materials.

“It represents a great opportunity to increase global crude demand. Our goal is to lead the non-metallic materials business globally,” he said when delivering a keynote speech at the 17th Middle East Corrosion Conference and Exhibition in Bahrain.

Abdullah pointed out that to achieve this target, Saudi Aramco intends to increase demand on oil, generate more revenues, minimize life cycle cost, localize manufacturing, and reduce the carbon footprint.

“We will achieve our target by being active in the following 4 fronts: maximizing deployment; promoting research and development; supporting localization through our flagship In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) initiative; and finally by investing in relevant companies in all stages of maturity,” he said.

In his speech, Abdullah also highlighted the various potentials of non-metallic materials in the automotive sector; building and construction sector; packaging sector; and renewables.

“In renewables, we envision the replacement of glass in solar panels by Polycarbonate for its light weight, impact resistance, and low thermal conductivity,” he said.